Savoir Faire
by aliasnumberfive
Summary: Bella has a role to play, whether she wants it or not.  Her Pack needs her to thrive, but she's not looking forward to being trapped in an arranged marriage with an Alpha who isn't her soul match.  A werewolf drabble fic, Bella/Edward.
1. Chapter 1

Note: I have a very short attention span these days, and not a lot of writing time, but I can't get this fic out of my head. So, I'll be trying a drabble-fic. Drabble-fics are intentionally short/very-short per posting, so if you decide to follow this, you should expect very short updates relatively frequently.

This is an idea I had for an original story, but since I'm not a novelist, I'm writing the Twilight character fanfic version of it. There are no vamps, only werewolves, and it is my own werewolf universe set with Twilight characters and settings.

**~a~a~a~a~a~a~a~a~a~**

"Is there anything left?"

I looked around at the small, mostly empty apartment that had been my home for three of the past four years and blew out a tired breath. Looking at the big werewolf who filled up every inch of the doorway, I shook my head.

"Just needs a good cleaning, I think." Erica's stupid cat had shed all over the place, and no matter how many times I vacuumed, I could tell the carpet needed a good shampooing now that all of the furniture had been moved out. I moved toward the stash of cleaning supplies that were stacked up and ready on the kitchen bar.

McCarty came just inside the door and leaned one bulging bicep against the wall. Even though he'd been schlepping my stuff down three flights of stairs for the better part of an hour, he didn't seem any worse for the wear.

"Put the duster down, princess." I bristled at his name for me, but he just smiled and continued. "Edward hired a cleaning crew to do this and you know he'll chew my ass if he finds out you lifted one delicate finger on it yourself."

I narrowed my eyes at him. McCarty took a special kind of joy in implying that I was some kind of pampered royalty, and I guess in a way I was. I hated it though, which only made him more eager to tease me at every opportunity.

"Would your ass like to see how delicate my _foot_ is?"

My comeback was met with a wide smirk and I was already groaning before McCarty could even fully open his mouth.

"_Kinky_, princess. I hope our Alpha is ready for your naughty side."

Immediately, my face fell, all of the amusement I'd been feeling at McCarty's annoying but affectionate teasing evaporating in the face of the reminder of what was to come. The bodyguard, who had also become my friend over the last four years, lost his smile too. He stood up straight and took several steps toward me, even though he didn't touch me. He rarely touched me, despite our shared nature to crave closeness with others of our kind.

"Hey, don't look like that. Aren't you looking forward to going home at all?" His voice was soft, gentle, imploring.

No. Yes. . . god, maybe. I just didn't know, but I couldn't say that. McCarty was depending on me to go home, because he couldn't until I did. And I knew the rest of the Pack was waiting as well. Truth was, if I wasn't going home to what was essentially the magical werewolf version of an arranged marriage, I'd be desperate to get back to Washington.

In the end, though, it didn't matter if I was looking forward to it or not. I was graduating from college tomorrow, and Edward would be here to make sure I was on my way home.

Ready, or not.


	2. Chapter 2

McCarty dropped me off at the hotel before heading off to pack up his own apartment. It was a huge pain to be moving out the day before graduation, but Erica and I had decided it was silly to pay a whole extra month's rent for the privilege of staying in the apartment for two extra days.

When I'd emailed Edward to let him know he shouldn't bother paying the rent, he responded by reserving rooms at the nicest boutique hotel in town for the weekend. I'm pretty sure, by the looks of the place, that it might have been better to have paid my share of the month's rent since it probably would have been cheaper in the end.

As I opened the door to the suite, my irritation faded a little. It was beautiful. The living area was decorated in creams and blues and somehow managed to marry the best of classical design with the modern touches of the massive television and sound-system. The bedroom held an enormous bed with mounds of pillows. However, the best part was the bathroom. One look at the gigantic jetted tub with its assortment of bath salts and bubbles setting on a tray and I knew exactly how I'd be spending the hours between now and the final night on the town I had planned with my friends for tonight.

I took a few minutes to unpack my suitcase, then drew myself a bath. As the lightly scented water filled the tub, I undressed in front of the mirror and looked at myself with a critical eye.

I had a nice body, kept limber and strong with the genes of a werewolf and a lifetime of dance classes. My hair was long and had a natural loose curl that other women might want to take a straight-iron to, but that I loved for its no-fuss ease. My skin was clear and my eyes, though a non-descript brown, were large and bright. Judging by the number of guys who had tried to approach me over the years, I was plenty attractive to the opposite sex.

Yet standing here in front of this mirror, I knew, with painful certainty brought on by ample experience, that the only man I would ever be with wanted someone else.

I wish I could say the same.


	3. Chapter 3

A knock sounded on the door just as I was putting the finishing touches on my make-up. I smiled at my own reflection, knowing who was waiting for me in the hall.

He always brought a smile to my face.

I swung the door open, and before I knew what was happening, my feet were off the ground and I was being flung over a wide male shoulder. A broad hand came down sharply on my ass, and I yelped before retaliating with a bite to the meatiest part of his arm.

"Ouch, Bell, that hurt!"

"Put me down, Seth, or I'll play really dirty," I threatened. When he just bounced me on his shoulder, knocking the breath out of me, I reached down the back of his low-slung jeans and grabbed the waist of his underwear and tugged, just enough to make him feel it.

"What the fuck! Ok, ok, let go of my Hanes and I'll let you down."

A wave of dizziness hit me as my feet touched the floor and I straightened, but Seth kept me steady in his arms. I looked up into the brown eyes that mirrored my own and my lips lifted into a small smile I just couldn't repress.

"Jerk."

Seth just gave me the lazy smile that made panties drop in a mile-wide radius anytime he unleashed it on a woman who wasn't his blood relative. Since I was his sister, it just made me roll my eyes.

He trailed after me as I went back to the closet to grab my shoes, a magical pair of heels that somehow managed to be comfortable even through a night of dancing. Then again, I'd spent enough time in toe-shoes over the years to have seriously screwed up ideas concerning the comfort of shoes. If my feet weren't bleeding by the end of the night, I considered it a success. As I was strapping them on, I caught sight of myself in a mirror and shot my brother a dirty look.

"Thanks for making my hair look like I've been in a wind storm." I reached up with fingers to try to tease some order back into the waves. This was my last night out with my friends, probably the last time I would see many of them in person, and I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. Of course, looking good was part of that. Once I got home, no one would dare get caught checking me out so I had to enjoy the attention in the few hours I had left before Edward's arrival.

Seth waved me off. "Don't worry about it. It's very 'freshly fucked'. The guys will be swarming."

"Like it'll do me any good," I muttered. I was under no illusions that any men other than Seth and Erica's boyfriend, Michael, would make it within two feet of me. No matter how much I complained, McCarty took his "body-guarding" duties very seriously. We might have become friends, but ultimately, he was here for one reason only and that was to make sure I returned to Edward and the Pack untouched, in all ways. Even if he wanted to let me have my way, he was under Alpha-order on this point. And no one, not even me, could break an Alpha-order without serious consequences.

I could still vividly remember the first time a cute boy had approached me at a party to ask me to dance. He had a solo cup in his hand and an adorable smile on his face and I'd been just drunk enough to think it might be a good idea to smile back at him. I was heartbroken and homesick and so, so lonely. I just wanted to let go, lose myself a little, try to have a good time and forget about what I'd run so far away from for just a little while. So when he stood beside me, entirely too close, and leaned in even closer so I could hear him over the music, I let him. I smiled and I flirted, and I completely ignored my surroundings until the boy grabbed my hand to lead me to the dance floor.

That's the moment I found out McCarty had been sent across the country to tail me.

My hand got dropped like a hot potato the moment McCarty approached us with a snarl on his face aimed directly at the boy touching me.

"Bella has a townie boyfriend, and man, don't mess with her because he's the biggest fucker I've ever laid my eyes on," was the refrain I overheard, over and over during my four years at college.

It was probably for the best. It wasn't like I wanted some innocent guy to get hurt because of me, even though I bristled at the unfairness of it all. While Edward fucked his way through Washington, I was a 22-year-old virgin who'd never even been kissed.

I looked at my brother, who would most likely be spending his last night in town with yet another new conquest and shook my head.

It didn't really matter what my hair looked like tonight. I was 100% certain I'd be going to bed alone.


End file.
